My dad, who always seemed like he was half-listening, raised his beer bottle and said, “Here, here.”
Everyone raised their bottles and drank—except Dom, who glared at all of us. “Y’all are forgetting Dante omitted a lot of truths over the years.”
“Not forgetting that at all.” I pointed my bottle at him and spoke up before anyone else could. “I remember it daily, considering I went to jail and was basically kidnapped because of these two brats.”
“But it got us here, right?” Izzy’s hazel eyes sparkled just like mine when they were on the verge of happy tears. “And here is pretty damn close to perfection, Dom. So like I said before, stop being a baby. You already fought him more than once about it.”
“I only got two good punches in.”
“Can’t help it if you can’t fight, man,” Dante grumbled, and his hand squeezed my thigh.
“Exactly.” Izzy leaned forward in her Adirondack chair and narrowed her eyes at our brother. “You’re not mad about them being together or him lying. You’re mad about your pride being hurt by your best friend. Suck it up. At least you didn’t shoot your shot with him and kiss him only for him to let you down easy!”
We were all laughing at Izzy giving Dom hell because we knew she was over it, having moved on, back to dating again.
In the darkness behind us, I didn’t expect a cold and vicious question to come out of nowhere. “You kissed him?” Cade hissed from the side of the house.
Izzy, who’d had her head on my shoulder, jumped about a mile out of her chair and whipped her head around.
Cade stalked over and glared down at her, his features brilliant in the night.
“Jesus, where did you come from? Were you watching us?” my sister whispered, like she couldn’t believe he was there.
“I’m always watching, Izzy.”
The fire snapped, and I swear the tension between them burned and crackled just as bright.
Cade didn’t take his eyes off her as he murmured, “Dante, Delilah. Jet’s ready to go.”
“Tonight?” My gaze ping-ponged between Izzy and Cade before I lifted a brow at my husband. “I didn’t pack.”
“Maybe we should go pack, then.” Dante smirked like he didn’t care about anything else but crossing off the last thing on my list. I squealed and didn’t think twice about the fact that I was leaving my family. This was for me and my husband. And I’d learned my family wanted what was best for us anyway.
We helped bring in some food, and Izzy followed me to the kitchen with some empty glasses while Dante cleaned the grill with Dom.
“I can’t believe Cade just shows up at our bonfire like this.” She stomped behind me.
“I think Dante probably called him,” I pointed out.
She was on her own tangent. “And he’s deliberately acting like my babysitter lately just because I’m still working for the government. Like I’m not good enough to take care of myself.”
“Well, he probably wants to make sure you’re safe, considering you’re friends.”
“Colleagues. Definitely not friends,” she almost shouted at me, her eyes narrowed like she was ready to fight me about it.
“Noted,” I grumbled as I set the food down.
I would also be noting that she seemed extremely emotionally charged when it came to Cade. That was for damn sure.
When I saw Cade quietly step in from the porch, I pointed behind me, said, “Gotta go to the bathroom, Izzy,” and beelined it out of there.
Of course, as soon as I closed the door, I put my ear against it. I was a nosy twin sister and didn’t care at all.
I heard the whisper-yelling start immediately from Izzy. “Don’t sneak up on me in my parents’ house, Cade.”
“Hardly sneaking considering I stepped right in front of you.”
“Whatever. This is a family party. You shouldn’t even be here.”
“Technically, Dante’s family. Want to go as far as to say we’re related too?”
“Oh my God. You’re so annoying.”
“If you think I’m annoying, quit the damn job and start working in corporate America.”
“Those guys aren’t done. You and I both know it. The drugs are a fucking cover for nuclear warfare, and I’m helping to bring them down.”
“You’re digging where you shouldn’t be. And you’re not half as good at it as you think. I’ve tracked every fucking hack you’ve done.”